Cape Watch: We Might See Superman’s Super-Mullet in a Movie

Warner Bros. Pictures

Not every update about a superhero movie is worthy of great attention. Take, for example, the revelation that not all of Aquaman will take place underwater. “Some of the most fun action in the movie actually takes place on dry land,” screenwriter Will Beall teased in an interview with Slashfilm. Well, yes. Obviously. Has there ever been a movie that took place entirely underwater that didn’t have some kind of submersible or little mermaid involved? Also, Aquaman’s whole schtick is that he’s trapped between the undersea and above-land worlds; if you just let him stay in the water the entire time, you’ve kind of lost that appeal. It’d be like doing Thor but making him into an alien gladiator with the Hulk on a planet out in space and ignoring Asgard and Earth altogether, and that’d be—what’s that? ::Reads Thor: Ragnarok synopsis.:: Oh. Never mind. Here’re the highlights of the week’s superhero movie news.

SUPER IDEA: What If a Stranger Told You Wonder Woman Sucked?

How much do you want the DC movies to fail? Probably not as much as the pseudonymous writer of this open letter to Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara, which lays into the studio boss for presiding over a number of critically-drubbed movies, including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. It’s a scathing note from beginning to end, but there’s one part in particular that has caught the eye of movie fans: “Don’t try to hide behind the great trailer,” it reads. “People inside are already confirming [Wonder Woman is] another mess.” But… are they, though?

Woah, just saw this press about WW having problems. Are they serious? This is some made up bs right here. Made up! Produce a source, anyone.

Why this is super: On the one hand, sure, of course the director of Wonder Woman and a studio exec would come out in support of the movie. On the other, their denial that the movie is a wreck is at least as believable as an Internet open letter written by someone who goes by a pseudonym from Big Trouble in Little China, so perhaps it’s all a wash in the end. (Meanwhile, not everyone is convinced the letter is everything it’s supposed to be, and others are suggesting that things are far better than that open letter implies.)

SUPER IDEA: Superman’s Super-Mullet

With a little over a year to go until the release of Justice League, Henry Cavill is already teasing the return of his Man of Steel.

Why this is super: Yes, that’s a black Superman costume. Yes, Superman wore a black costume when he returned from the dead in the 1993/94 comic storyline where he really didn’t fare that well up against Doomsday. If this means the movies are going to be that faithful to the comic book source material, then we’re definitely looking forward to Henry Cavill sporting a full-on Super-Mullet.

SUPER IDEA: That Shazam! Movie Is Still Happening

Remember the Shazam! movie? Probably not, because it’s not due for release for another three years, and no one has talked about it in recent memory. It’s still happening, however, and its producer, Dany Garcia, talked briefly about the project to Newsweek, saying that the movie will “live in the same world” as Warners’ other DC movies, but not share a tonal similarity with them. “We are working with a different team, different producers, directors,” Garcia said. “We don’t feel fettered by, or constrained by, the successes or failures and challenges of the other projects. That was a key component to our participation—that we be able to control the tone and the voice, and do it the way we want to.”Why this is super: Hopefully, this means that fans will get the Big Red Cheese they deserve on the big screen, but it’s far too early to say. After all, all we really know about the movie at this point is that Dwayne Johnson will appear as the villain, Black Adam.

SUPER IDEA: James Gunn Playing with Different Heroes

James Gunn really loves his Facebook Q&As. During a recent session, he threw the cat amongst the fanboy pigeons not once, but twice, hinting that he wouldn’t automatically return for a third Guardians of the Galaxy movie if there was one, and then revealing that he’s actually thought about—shock! horror!—making movies based on DC characters. “I thought there [were] some amazing action sequences in Man of Steel, but I haven’t seen the other two films,” he said when asked how he felt about Warners’ DC movies. “I’ve had opportunities to make DC films, but I haven’t said yes to anything, and not sure I would at this time. I’ve talked before about which projects appeal to me the most IF I was into making one, and it’s always Shazam and Metal Men and Swamp Thing and Jonah Hex and a few other DC IPs I’ve enjoyed for a great deal of my life.” Wait… Shazam!? B-but… that’s actually in the works as a movie, as you’ve just read! Could someone at Warners be savvy enough to try and snap him up? (In response to a separate question, he identified the Cassandra Cain Batgirl as a DC character he’d love to film, so there’s another possibility…)Why this is super: It’d be fascinating to see if Gunn would jump ship from Marvel to make the Shazam! movie, mostly because we want to know if Gunn’s Marvel contract would allow it, or if there’s a non-complete clause. But just imagine!

SUPER IDEA: The Four We Could’ve Seen

It’s been a year, so now it’s time for us to start getting over the pain of last summer’s Fantastic Four and start wondering what went wrong. In a great article from Screen Crush, the movie’s original screenwriter Jeremy Slater offered some ideas about where it began to fall apart, and also broke some FF fans’ hearts by explaining what the movie could have been. “In addition to Annihilus and the Negative Zone, we had Doctor Doom declaring war against the civilized world, the Mole Man unleashing a 60-foot genetically-engineered monster in downtown Manhattan, a commando raid on the Baxter Foundation, a Saving Private Ryan-style finale pitting our heroes against an army of Doombots in war-torn Latveria, and a post-credit teaser featuring Galactus and the Silver Surfer destroying an entire planet,” Slater teased. “We had monsters and aliens and Fantasticars and a cute spherical H.E.R.B.I.E. robot that was basically BB-8 two years before BB-8 ever existed. And if you think all of that sounds great…well, yeah, we did, too.”Why this is super: Oh, come on. That would’ve been a far, far better movie than the one we actually got. Damn you, movie studios! Damn you all to mediocre box office and reviews even worse than Suicide Squad!

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